In September 2025, the Northern Health Science Alliance held four events at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. We partnered with politicians, policymakers and Government representatives to bring the North’s pressing health issues to the forefront of our Government.

Private roundtable: Utilising the prevention agenda and civic-driven data to fuel the NHS of the future

We were joined by Women’s Health Ambassador for England Professor Dame Lesley Regan, along with representatives from ABPI, Tony Blair Institute, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Civic Health Innovation Labs, Cheshire and Merseyside ICS, Newmarket Strategy, Durham University, University of Manchester, Lancaster University, University of Lancashire, Newcastle University, Healthcare Infection Society, and the University of Sheffield.

We explored the challenges and opportunities in expanding successful health research and delivery models across the North of England. There was consensus on the need to address funding gaps – especially for clinical research where reimbursement is uncertain -and to develop a compelling case for government support, possibly through a population and patient funding model to enable wider rollout of prevention research.

We will shortly publish a full report on the roundtable discussions.

Private roundtable: Delivering the 10 Year Plan in Health Inequalities: productivity, mental and physical health across the life course.

Northern MPs Anna Dixon, MP for Shipley, and Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham and Saddleworth, led discussions with representatives from the University of Liverpool, The Work Foundation, Centre for Ageing Better, Durham University, Northern powerhouse Partnership, University of Manchester, University of Sheffield, IPPR North, Yorkshire Cancer Research, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Healthcare Infection Society.

The roundtable considered how joined-up strategies can deliver better health and employment outcomes across the life course, especially through preventative approaches, early interventions, and regional innovation.  The event focussed on our Health for Wealth report which shows that productivity is lower in the North, largely due to poorer health outcomes, and ‘Ageing in the North’ report which found that  targeted investment has the potential to reduce or recover as much as £10.9 billion in lost productivity costs, £315 million in NHS costs from falls and hip fractures, and £588 million in NHS costs from treating conditions resulting from poor housing. 

We will shortly publish a full report on the roundtable discussions.

Wireless event: Building a Better Future for Northern Women: Health, Opportunity, Equality

Our Chief Executive Hannah Davies and Board Chair Professor Louise Kenny joined Professor Dame Lesley Regan, Women’s Health Ambassador for England and Kirith Entwistle, MP for Bolton North East, Member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee. The event focuses on our Woman of the North report which found that women living in the North have lower healthy life expectancy, fewer qualifications, worse mental health, and are more likely to suffer domestic violence or to end up in the criminal justice system than their counterparts in the rest of England.  The economic cost of these inequalities is also explored in the report which estimates women in the North lose out on a staggering £132m every week, compared to what they would get paid if wages were the same as women in the rest of the country. The panel looked at the scale of inequalities facing women in the North, in health, work, and life chances, and how these intersect with national policy, as well as the opportunities that exist to make change happen, and what actions should be prioritised to close the health gap for women in the North.

We will shortly publish a full report on the panel discussion.

Wireless event: Addressing child health and social inequalities through poverty reduction nationally and locally

Kate Proctor, UK News Leads at Save the Children, chaired the meeting which saw Sam Rushworth, MP for Bishop Auckland, Professors David Taylor-Robinson and Kate Pickett, Academic Co-Directors of Health Equity North and Graham Whitham, CEO and Founder of Resolve Poverty discuss to ever-present effects of child poverty and the regional inequalities prevalent in the North of England. Held with the University of York’s York Policy Engine, Health Equity North and Child of the North, the event explored how national policy and local strategies can work hand-in-hand to reduce child poverty and close the health and opportunity gap experienced by children across the UK, particularly those in the North. We were also joined by two young people, Philip and Hope from the University of Liverpool’s Young People’s Advisory Board, who shared their lived experience and asked the panel all-important questions on what issues need to be urgently addressed in order to improve  circumstances for young people.

We will shortly publish a full report on the panel discussion.

External events

Members of our Executive Team spoke on various roundtable and panel events at Labour Party Conference, including:

Our Executive Lead for Health Technologies and Evaluation Helen Cole spoke on a panel held by the University of Liverpool’s Civic Health Innovation Labs, “Data and AI for All: Building Stronger Health and Social Care Systems”. This session used a northern lens to explore the transformative potential of data and artificial intelligence in strengthening health and social care systems across the UK. Joining Dame Chi Onwurah- Labour MP, Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West & Chair, House of Commons Science, Innovation & Technology Select Committee. Helen touched on how northern regions can link up so local successes become shared learning across the North.

Our Executive Lead for Corporate Engagement and Cluster Development Dr Mandy Dixon also attended a breakfast roundtable hosted by the International Longevity Centre and Independent Age identifying politically workable solutions to realise better places to be born, grow up and grow old in. The group of industry experts and MPs focussed on how to tackle poverty and inequalities in healthy ageing and identified politically workable solutions to realise better places to be born, grow up and grow old in, and to ensure that all places can better support longer lives.